In my own personal experience, having worked with reserves in Saskatchewan on developing child care services, you are right, it is absolutely the most critical need in the country. Clearly that is an area of federal jurisdiction, and yet when this government a year ago terminated the agreements with the provinces and territories, they gave a one-year notice, or transferred the funds for that one year. However, the funds that were allocated for on-reserve aboriginal child care were cut immediately, so they didn't even have the benefit of that.
That, to me, is ludicrous and quite mean-spirited. We all know the poverty and marginalization issues that our aboriginal people are facing on reserves, and we're in the position of having international aid organizations come to sponsor our aboriginal children on-reserve, yet this government is immediately cutting. They didn't even give them the grace period of one year that they gave to the provinces and territories. To immediately cut that funding to on-reserve child care is just shameful.